We took in a rescue Bengal about 6 months ago. He's having digestive issues which are manifesting in loose, bloody stools. He's been to the vet and has no parasites and they deduced it was a food sensitivity. Because we have 3 other cats, it's a whole bunch easier if they eat the same food. On the vet's recommendation, we switched Kip from Orijens to Royal Canine Sensitive and successfully transitioned everyone to the food which they love. The problem is that Kip was much improved for about two weeks and suddenly is exhibiting the same behaviours as before (although not as badly). He's also pooping out of the box, stools are loose, and he walks around yowling which I take as meaning he's in distress. A breeder I know suggested adding wet food to his diet as she says dry can be difficult. The vet also gave us some probiotic liquid which I'm pretty sure is permanently etched into the scratches on my arm as well as decorating the floors and cabinets, but I'm not sure any actually got into the cat. He was on an antibiotic which seemed to make no difference whatsoever. I'm pretty desperate here. I'm in rural Ireland which means everything I order has to be online. Any ideas, help, or advice would be very welcome.

Maybe Fortiflora will help. I had a similar bout of kitty having issues like that and eventually was recommended to put her on a special allergies diet too - hills zd I think. This was for six weeks and then start reintroduction to different food... Nature's menu country hunter seems to work. Chicken seems to be a no-no for mine, but you may just have to rotate different types of food. Vet also recommended no tuna, white fish only. When at worst, I'd boil turkey meat and use that - but it's not a complete diet. Not sure if any of the above will help but may be worth trying.

Yea, trying to pill a bengal is hard. Trying to do liquid is even harder (for me at least). If at all possible try to "hide" it in food. Pill pockets, treats etc. Depending on the medicine, you might be able to get it compounded too.

Be careful about declaring that "he doesn't have a parasite". At best, you can probably say that "the test that the vet ran came back negative for the parasites he tested for". The most common test that they run is only 80% accurate, and omits testing for one of the more common parasites (TF). Sometimes if a vet suspects a parasite, they will just treat pro-actively without even having a positive test. Although since you have a multi-cat household, you may know soon whether it's a parasite or not because the other cats may (or not) start exhibiting the same symptoms :\

Welcome to our forum and congratulations on your baby. Diagnosing something like this in a cat is extremely difficult. Vets are quick to say "allergies." But, it could be something else. I'm dealing with this with my 11-year old bengal. However, vomiting was also very common.

First of all, Royal Canin makes a canned sensitive digest food (which I have given my bengal). I also have him on the Hills i/d prescription diet.

My bengal has inflammatory bowel disease. I have given him FortiFlora for years and, although it helps, it isn't the solution. Sometimes his poops are formed perfectly and sometimes they are not. While a food allergy is probably easiest to deal with -- if the change in diet doesn't help, then you may need to want an ultrasound done on the abdomen. It is non-invasive and can show the digestive tract.

It is always difficult to know what is going on with our babies as they can't tell us. But symptoms like loose stools, vomiting, not eating signal a problem.

Is your kitty losing weight? Mine went from about 13 pounds down to 9.49 pounds. We went to specialist and Raiden is now on predniosolone and metronidazole, .5ml daily of each. This allowed him to gain 6.5 pounds however, his stools are still soft at times. While we got past the vomiting back in May, it returned a couple of weeks ago and I had to give him an anti-nausea pill. I'm not saying this is solution for you as trying different foods may help your baby.

I do find it easier to syringe liquid into his mouth rather than pills, but we do both. Sometimes my husband has to hold him down for me as Raiden really hates to have this done every night. I do try to hold his front paws with one hand as I'm syringing with the other one. He moves his head back and forth and I have "missed" sometimes! Or it gets around his mouth and he just cleans it off.

As for the yowling -- this could mean different things. My cat yowls all the time -- mainly to go out on his daily walks. I don't know that he is in any pain.

Please continue to consult with your vet who can recommend other tests that may determine the problem. Know that you are not the ONLY bengal owner dealing with this issue.

Thanks for the replies. I think adding the probiotic to his food will be a start once I pick out a wet one to try. I've never owned a cat this difficult to dose in 50 years of cat owning. He turns into Satan's spawn before my very eyes at the sight of a syringe or a pill and he "knows" when there's something mixed into his food and will carefully eat around it or just avoid it entirely. He managed to get into some pate at Thanksgiving (I know, an American in Ireland who can't give it up) and he hoovered that down before I could even blink, so that's a possibility of using that as a probiotic vehicle.

Whoever mentioned the howling is correct, I've had Bengals and they're all talkative little buggers. I'm just feeling guilty that he's not comfortable. He's definitely not losing weight and has gained since he's been with us. I rather suspect that he was suffering from malnutrition when we got him as I was told he was only getting 2/8ths of a cup of food per day. He was rail thin. He's still not as filled out as I would like, but he's still young and has heaps of energy, so his general health seems to be good. None of the cats are vomiting, so that's good, right? I'm fairly confident that the vet checked all the cats for all the parasites (two of our rescues were from Oman, so they got a really comprehensive health check so the vet knows what she's doing).

I'll keep trying and keep you guys posted on what works, and what doesn't.

... and he "knows" when there's something mixed into his food and will carefully eat around it or just avoid it entirely. He managed to get into some pate at Thanksgiving (I know, an American in Ireland who can't give it up) and he hoovered that down before I could even blink, so that's a possibility of using that as a probiotic vehicle.

Yea, they can sometimes get suspicious, but mostly I think it's a matter of smell/taste... how good does the food smell vs how much the medicine smells... I know, it can be hard though. Gaga just wolfs up food so it's easy to fool her but Serafina is the suspicious, picky, difficult one. But even her I've been able to trick in the past (last time she had a vet appt I mixed some mild tranquilizer medicine that the vet gave me into her morning turkey snack).

Raiden doesn't mind the FortiFlora but I put it in a Hartz Stew treat. It is just over an ounce, comes in all flavors, it's REAL meat -- doesn't have much nutritional value as it's meat and broth, but Raiden will lick the bowl clean. The rest of the time he will eat the I/d dry or the Royal Canin wet.

Not vomiting is a good sign. Mine was vomiting several times a a day and then just not eating because he knew it would just come back up. We are lucky to have Nashville Veterinary Specialists which have internal medicine, cardiology, oncology, orthopedic, ophthalmology and neurology specialists. They aren't cheap, that's for sure but they definitely know their specialty.

I don't know the having chronic soft stools is a huge issue. It just means the food is moving down the digestive tract fast and is not being absorbed properly. Another thing you might have the vet check is for a B12 deficiency. B12 helps the intestinal tract in the absorption of food. Another expensive test, but we found Raiden had a low B12 reading. Had to give him B12 shots, then switched to a liquid. Once we got the vomiting under control and better stools, they tested again and it was off the chart. They couldn't even read it, so we are off the B12. Since your baby is not losing weight, this may not be an issue with the B12. However, it is always good for the vet to do complete blood work just to get an idea of where your kitty is.

Note, I am not a vet or a vet tech --my knowledge comes from my bengal and our vet. Your vet may have other ideas on how to treat this issue -- and would definitely go with that recommendation.

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